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Is today's government workforce too big? Too small? Are there enough people for the mission? Paul Light's answers to these questions are that it is impossible to know because we do not have a good look at the make-up of the federal workforce.

Speaking at a panel hosted by the Volcker Alliance in Washington, DC last week, Light posed a different question contributing to the debate about the size of government: Is it blended properly and what role does the contracting community play?

"We have a large, blended workforce. Right or wrong, that doesn't matter. We have it, now what do we do with it?" he asked the group of more than 30 public administration professionals attending the event. "If we're going to have a debate about headcount, then let's debate the full headcount. If we're going to debate the budget, then let's debate the full budget."

The discussion on the table for the morning revolved around who makes up the current federal workforce, which is a blend of federal employees, contractors and grant contributors, and who suffers when the workforce shrinks.

"There's a direct relationship between shrinking the federal employee workforce and increasing the number of contractors doing the job," Light stated. "When you start talking about workforce reductions, you have to have a discussion about what you give up in exchange. True reduction means revisiting your mission."

Light was joined for the discussion by three panelists: Joe Davidson (The Washington Post), Norm Orenstein (American Enterprise Institute) and Danielle Brian (Project on Government Oversight). Commentary ranged from the role of the citizen in this debate to accountability and corruption in government to recruiting for the next generation of federal employees to the level of service the American citizen is getting from its government.

"We are stuck in a bad loop," observed panel moderator Paul Ross (The Volcker Alliance). "Citizens criticize the government for lack of services, which leads to insufficient recruitment of new employees into the workforce. That leads to a shrinking workforce, which leads to fewer services—which leads back to citizens criticizing government."

"We need to bring in new, younger government employees," Light said. "More than 100,000 will leave through buy-outs in the next few years—but who comes in next? You can talk about bringing them back from the contract world, but if you want to attract them, the federal government has to be a better employer."

Questions from the audience also brought panelists around to discussing the public's perception of the services they are receiving and the role politics plays on these decisions.

"The public needs to pay attention," Brian stated firmly. "Privatization is not just a Republican tactic—Democrats do it too. But when politicians use inaccurate rhetoric about the size of government when speaking to constituents, it hurts the cause."

"The threshold for an acceptable government workforce is 2 million people," Light noted. "More than that and you have increased the size of government. Most presidential administrations want to be able to tell voters they've kept the government workforce under that mark. But no one is looking at the contracting community when they take that measurement."

ASPA is pleased to announce the release of the first two memos in ASPA's Memos to State and Local Leaders series. Initiated in 2016, ASPA Chapters across the United States were invited to develop topical papers on critical policy and management issues that our states and localities face, along with recommendations to address—and even overcome—them.

Nearly one dozen Chapters participated in this effort. Through meetings, surveys and locally based conferences, they engaged their members actively and repeatedly. This series is the result of their efforts. Also making this project possible were 2015-2016 President Maria Aristigueta, National Council Member Galia Cohen and Joseph Wholey, professor emeritus at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC, all of whom played a key role in the review process.

Produced by ASPA's Central Pennsylvania Chapter, the first two memos cover fiscal policy and program management at the state, regional and local levels. Click on the following links to access these memos:

Additional memos from other Chapters will be released on an at-least monthly basis over the next eight months, and be supplemented with periodic webinars featuring authors and Chapter representatives. We look forward to the interactive dialogue that will build on the memos and apply locally based challenges and promising practices to a broader scale.

We will start this dialogue with a webinar in partnership with the Central Pennsylvania Chapter to discuss their memos. Details are as follows:

We hope you are able to join us for this informative webinar on issues relevant to state governments across the country. For more information about the webinar, about these memos or about the Memos to State and Local Leaders project, please visit our website (members only).

ASPA's professional development webinars are ongoing throughout the year. Averaging 75 attendees per webinar and free to ASPA members, these e-learning opportunities provide you with valuable insights and information at your fingertips. Visit our website to stay in the loop about all upcoming webinars, BookTalks and Student Series.

This webinar will focus on how to incorporate uncomfortable conversations (e.g. equity issues or specialized topics like criminal justice, environmental issues etc.) into mainstream public administration classes, as well as the creation of special topics courses.

Social marketing is a discipline unfamiliar to many policymakers, often confused with the more frequently applied and studied fields of social media, behavioral economics or social change. It is a growing field and methodology, however, that has been successfully applied to improve public health, prevent injuries, protect the environment, engage communities and improve financial well-being. Policymaking for Citizen Behavior Change is designed to demonstrate the ways in which social marketing can be an effective and efficient tool to change citizens' behavior and how to advocate for and support its appropriate application.

Did you know ASPA exhibits at tradeshows throughout the year? Most of the time, an ASPA staff member attends the tradeshow, stands at the booth and tells visitors about ASPA membership.

What if, instead of an ASPA staff member representing ASPA, an actual ASPA member gave voice to the benefits ASPA offers? If you think this is a great idea and want to be one of those voices, let us know!

The first opportunity to talk about ASPA membership at a tradeshow is at the ICMA tradeshow later this month. ASPA and ICMA share interest areas and, as a result, share prospective member pools—especially those who are part of the state and local government workforce and serve as city managers. If you are part of that shared interest, are members of both ASPA and ICMA and are planning to attend ICMA's annual conference later this month, perhaps you'd be interested in talking about ASPA while you're there?

ASPA has a booth in the exhibit hall (Visit us! Booth 437!) and we are looking for member volunteers to help tout the benefits of ASPA membership to others in the hall. Whether for an hour or for a morning, we would love to have company at our booth and also use your voice to share a true member experience with visitors who are interested in learning about membership.

ICMA is just 10 days away, so we don't have a lot of time to recruit volunteers. Contact us today if you have some time to donate to the cause!

Not registered? We may have an exhibitor badge we can provide for exhibit hall access. Not able to attend ICMA but interested in helping at other booths? Let us know!

Those who submitted conference proposals will not receive acceptance letters before the discount registration rate expires. If you register for the conference and are not accepted to present, you can receive a full refund on your registration until Dec. 31, 2017.

For those of you considering applying for the Founders' Fellows program—or have started an application and need to finish it—you have two days to do so. All applications are due by 11:59 p.m. ET, Friday, Oct. 13.

The Founders' Fellows program recognizes the exceptional accomplishments and future potential of the next generation of public servants—in the academic and/or practitioner communities. The 2018 class will demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and professional promise. Only 25 candidates will be accepted and the review process is rigorous.

ASPA's Annual Awards Program Call for Nominations is open through Oct. 27. Have you chosen who you will nominate?

This March, during ASPA's 2018 Annual Conference, we will honor more than 30 individuals with more than 20 awards for their public service and/or academic achievements. Just a few of the awards that will be presented include:

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Exemplary Practice Award

Public Integrity Award

Elmer B. Staats Lifetime Achievement Award

Gloria Hobson Nordin Social Equity Award

Nesta M. Gallas Award

Donald C. Stone Service to ASPA Award

We are looking for nominees who have:

Advocated for social equity in public administration

Successfully bridged the gap as both an academic and a public administrator

Held a distinguished career in public service

Made tremendous scholarly contributions

Greatly contributed to ASPA's success over time or

Otherwise exhibited excellence in the field

You can find all of our awards listed online. Each of them are prestigious honors bestowed only on those exhibiting excellence in public service and worthy of such recognition.

Remember: ASPA membership is not a pre-requisite for all ASPA awards. Colleagues, friends, practitioners and academics are all eligible to be honored within this program.

The Section for Women in Public Administration (SWPA) logo competition is still open. The new logo will be used on the Section's website, banner, fliers and all other promotional materials. The winning entry will receive a $200 award and an annual membership in SWPA. All submissions are due to the Section by Oct. 15, 2017. Email Hillary Knepper for more details or with your submission. Electronic entries only, please.

The biennial Lien International Conference for Good Governance is taking place in Singapore, Oct. 27-28, 2017. Hosted by the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the conference is organized with ASPA and IIAS. The 2017 theme will be Forging Toward an Inclusive and Sustainable Globalization. Click here for more information.

The Department of Public Administration and Management, Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Studies at Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, reminds you to take part in its 2017 annual international conference: the Transylvanian International Conference in Public Administration. The conference will take place Nov. 2-4 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. A workshop for practitioners and a Ph.D. seminar are scheduled to take place before the main conference on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Registration is open. Click here for more information.

The African Association for Public Administration and Management's (AAPAM) 38th Roundtable Conference will be hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco, in partnership with the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa and its Academy, and the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development. The conference will be held Nov. 6-10, 2017 in El Jadida, Kingdom of Morocco. The theme of the conference is: A Transformed Leadership: Managing Natural Resources to Achieve the Objectives of African Union Agenda 2063 within the Context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Click here for more information.

Public Administration Review announces a call for papers: Behavioral Approaches to Bureaucratic Red Tape and Administrative Burden. Potential paper proposals that would be welcomed include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following themes:

Behavioral consequences of red tape and administrative burden

Behavioral justifications for regulatory action

Group decisionmaking biases in bureaucratic settings

Behavioral dimensions of government responses to crises

Nudge strategies

Citizen-state interactions

Emotional responses to bureaucracy

Cognitive biases in decisionmaking

Choice architecture of government rules and services

Relevant theoretical syntheses and conceptual analyses

The symposium will be edited by Christopher Carrigan, Sanjay Pandey and Gregg Van Ryzin. All paper proposals are due Nov. 15, 2017. For more information, please click here.

The Philippine Society for Public Administration announces its 2017 international conference will take place Nov. 16-18 in Mandaluyong, Philippines. Discussions will center around this year's theme, Innovations in Public Administration Reforms in ASEAN and in Asian Communities. Registration is open now. Click here for more information.

The Zambian Society for Public Administration (ZSPA) has issued its call for nominations for its 2017 public service excellence awards. With awards being given out in more than 15 categories, this is a robust awards program honoring public servants both within Zambia and internationally. The awards ceremony will take place Nov. 24, 2017 in Lusaka. Click here for more information.

ASPA's Section on Environment and Natural Resource Administration (SENRA) invites students in graduate programs to submit their papers on any environmental topic for consideration in the Section's 2017 student paper competition. Faculty members can also nominate student paper(s) for submission. The best written paper will be awarded a prize of $200 and the author will receive a certificate of recognition from SENRA at ASPA's 2018 Annual Conference. The deadline for receiving papers is Dec. 31, 2017. Click here for more information.

The Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (SBCA) is accepting abstracts and workshop proposals for participation in its 2018 Annual Conference. The SBCA is an international group of practitioners, academics and others who are working to improve the theory and application of the tools of benefit-cost analysis (BCA). SBCA welcomes submissions that support the enhanced use of such analysis to promote evidence-based decisionmaking. Submissions can define BCA broadly, including cost analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, risk-benefit analysis, applied welfare economics, damage assessment and other methods. Applications in any public policy area are encouraged. All proposals are due by Oct. 13, 2017. Click here for more information.

The Association Internationale de Recherche en Management Public (AIRMAP) announces its 7th conference will take place in Biarritz, France, May 31-June 1, 2018. The theme for the conference will be public innovation and management. Click here for more information and contact David Carassus with questions.

The latest articles from Public Administration Review are available in the Wiley Online Library.

PAR Virtual IssueJames L. Perry, Editor in Chief

Legacy and StewardshipJames L. Perry (Indiana University, Bloomington) writes in his final editorial as PAR's 19th Editor in Chief, "Legacy and Stewardship," about the journal's long-standing legacy of leadership for the field of public administration. This virtual issue highlights 10 editorials from his term as Editor in Chief that represent how PAR's more than seven-decade legacy was manifest from 2012 through 2017. Link to PAR Virtual Issue

Research ArticlesHow Leadership and Public Service Motivation Enhance Innovative Behavior
Prior research has linked the innovative behavior of public sector employees to desirable outcomes such as improved efficiency and higher public service quality. However, questions regarding the drivers of innovative behavior among employees have received limited attention. Qing Miao (Zhejiang University, China), Alexander Newman (Deakin University, Australia), Gary Schwarz (SOAS University of London, United Kingdom) and Brian Cooper (Monash University, Australia) employ psychological empowerment theory to examine the underlying processes by which entrepreneurial leadership and public service motivation (PSM) shape innovative behavior among civil servants. Based on three-wave data from 281 Chinese civil servants and their 59 department heads, entrepreneurial leadership is found to positively influence subordinates' innovative behavior by enhancing two dimensions of psychological empowerment: meaning and impact. Additionally, PSM was found to influence subordinates' innovative behavior by enhancing the dimensions of meaning and competence. These findings suggest that to facilitate innovative behavior among employees, public organizations should consider introducing training that encourages leaders to serve as entrepreneurial role models and recruit employees with high levels of PSM. Link to PAR Early View

Can Performance Management Best Practices Help Reduce Crime?
As performance management systems gain popularity in police agencies, they are increasingly being criticized for their ineffectiveness at reducing crime and for encouraging abuse of authority. Scholars and practitioners, however, argue that these systems can be effective if they are implemented properly with the use of best practices. Obed Pasha (Cleveland State University) contributes to this debate by evaluating the impact of performance management systems and associated best practices on improving police performance. An analysis of primary survey data of 308 U.S. police agencies shows that performance management systems are effective tools in helping reduce crime across almost all crime categories. However, the best practices of performance reporting to citizens and providing discretion to officers have no significant impact on crime reduction, while consulting officers in the target-setting process has a negative impact on police performance. Link to PAR Early View

Book ReviewsDanny L. Balfour, Editor

Restoring Faith in Government: A Sisyphean Task?Mary R. Hamilton (University of Nebraska Omaha) reviews Valuing Bureaucracy: The Case for Professional Government (2017) by Paul R. Verkuil. In his latest book, Verkuil makes a valiant case for rebuilding professionalism in government. Drawing on his recent experience as chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Obama administration, Verkuil argues that rebuilding professionalism in government is essential to accomplishing all of our major goals. For example, he asserts that we cannot rebuild our physical infrastructure without fixing our human infrastructure. Link to PAR Early View

A Plea from a Former Careerist to Presidential AppointeesSusannah Bruns Ali (Florida International University) reviews The Presidential Appointee's Handbook, Second Edition (2017) by G. Edward DeSeve. How do you write a handbook for new political appointees of an administration that has the goal of uprooting the status quo? According to Bruns Ali, DeSeve gives a balanced overview that grounds new appointees in some of the challenges of their new positions and gives a constructive guide to help navigate the tangled complexity of getting work done in a political environment. Where the book could contribute more is by speaking to the Hobbesian/Machiavellian nature of an appointee's job when he/she is tasked with creating drastic changes that are often in opposition to the mission of the organization that he/she is to lead. Link to PAR Early View

Find your next career opportunity at publicservicecareers.org. This online job board is the perfect resource for making a career change or landing your first job in the public service. It lists dozens of positions in academia, government and the nonprofit sector. Below are just a few current listings.